THE BEATLES ON THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW 1964 AND A PHOTO OF JULES VERNE

Yesterday was the birthday of famed novelist Jules Verne, author of TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA and AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS. I didn't get to post a picture of him yesterday and I thought I would today.

On this day in 1964, the Beatles, John, Paul, George and Ringo made their first appearnce on the Ed Sullivan Show. What an amazing success story that only stopped because of personal ego. I once wrote in my journal that "Ego was for getting out of bed and performing IN bed and everything else is bullshit! Ego sinks more ships than you could ever imagine. I once saw a cartoon in the New York Times that showed the Titanic sinking in 1912. Two old men were rowing away from the disaster in a rowboat. The caption read (one old man's comment to the other) "It wasn't the ice berg that did her in, you know--it was her bloody ego!" True --the Titanic also had proclaimed herself to be absolutrely unsinkable and had thertefore sailed without a sufficient number of rowboats. At any rate some facts about the Beatles might be interesting:On February 7th, 1964 a crowd of four thousand fans at Heathrow Airport waved to The Beatles as they took off on Pan Am flight 101, for their first trip to America as a group.They were accompanied by photographers, journalists (including Maureen Cleave and Phil Spector (in big trouble nowadays) who had booked himself on the same flight.The pilot had radioed ahead, and as they prepared to land he said, "Tell the boys there's a big crowd waiting for them." Kennedy International Airport had never experienced a crowd of that size before, which was estimated to be about 3,000 screaming fans After a Press conference (where they first met Murray the K) they were put into individual limousines and driven to New York. McCartney turned on the car radio and heard a running commentary: "The Beatles] have just left the airport and are coming to New York City..." After reaching the Plaza Hotel, they were besieged by fans and reporters. Harrison had a temperature of 102 the next day and was ordered to stay in bed, so Neil Aspinall replaced him for the first television rehearsal.[58]
Their Ed Sullivan Show on February 9th was spoiled the next morning when practically every newspaper had comments that The Beatles were nothing more than a "fad", and "could not carry a tune across the Atlantic. Oh well-- who said critics knew what the hell they were talking about anyway?After The Beatles' huge success in 1964, Vee-Jay Records and Swan Records took advantage of their previously secured rights to The Beatles' early recordings and reissued the songs, all of which reached the top ten the second time around. (MGM and Atco also secured rights to The Beatles' early Tony Sheridan-era recordings and had minor hits with "My Bonnie" and "Ain't She Sweet".)